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Unfortunately, unless tha lender pre-approved a sales amount, the listed price is something that the seller and the agent decided on, not the lender. What the lender will do is have a number of Broker Price Opinions done on the property. Depending on how long the property has been on the market, they usually will want between 80% and 90% of the value of the home based on those reports. If it is not within that guideline it is probable that you will not get a response. The department that handles Short Sales are manned by underpaid people who usually get a bonus if they can close it in a short amount of time and have a couple of hundred files on their desk. If it is not within the guidelines and they do not have a complete package of paperwork, it goes back into the stack. After 30 days it is moved to another desk. It might be a good idea to see if your offer, based on other similiar sold homes, fits within the guidelines of the lender. Hope that helps

One problem with short sales is that not all short sales will ever get bank approval. Many sellers incorrectly just assume they can list it for sale and the bank will have to accept an offer to sell it for a loss. NOTHING is more incorrect. The bank does not have to accept an offer in which they, the bank, must lose money and so they can say no to even over list offers or ignore you all year long. The fact it was under contract only means the owner accepted an offer and the buyers could have given up waiting for an answer and walked away - happens a lot. Your agent should be telling you all this.

Unfortunately, offering more doesn't guarantee a quicker response time. The lender will still do an appraisal, some Broker Price Opinions, check to make sure all of the sellers information is complete and in compliance, etc. The waiting period varies greatly between institutions but the reason is seldom the asking or offering price. The short sale package, which includes your offer, is being evaluated and voted on as a package with whoever the investors are on that particular property. You will need much patience if you plan on sticking with this. Hopefully you love the house and want to see it through. Good Luck;

If your offer is currently with the investor there is no way to know how long until you hear back to the investors decision. Depending on the investor and how backed up they are it could be one day or it could be two weeks. For example Freddie Mac loans tend to take longer than most of the other investors. I manage a team of guys and we have roughly 300 short sales at any given time. I'd say average wait time is 1-2 weeks, but it could be less. Good luck! Brett@ishortsalenow.com

Have your agent give you some selling prices of similar homes in the neighborhood, and since the market is generally coming up abit, allow for that. Then compare that price to what you offered. Many short sales are initially offered at a low price to get an offer. The agent cannot usually get the bank to act until there is an offer on the table.

Question for your Realtor - did the listing agent tell him/her that the short sale was previously approved that fell out of escrow with a different buyer? First Franklin I believe is now BANK OF AMERICA. If it is Bank of America, the list price COULD be pre-approved by Bank of America BUT this is not always the case.

The time frame also depends on how well versed the listing agent is at negotiating short sales and how quickly he/she is getting the short sale lender required documents. Writing over the asking price WILL NOT speed up the process if it's not approved at the list price.

If it's quick - around 60 days for approval then 30 days to close escrow.
If it's average - about 90-120 days for approval then 30 days to close escrow.
If it's slow - 180+ days for approval then 30 days to close escrow.

My agent is awesome but hasnt worked with first Franklin before we had an offer in on a different house through b of a and the bank decided that house was worth 30000 more and we found this on e thats way under our budget at 125k

Your agent and the listing agent collectively are in the best position to answer your question on timing. Your offer over list is not likely to expedite the process, but may put you in a stronger position to prevail. Many short sales are being approved and are closing much sooner than they were previously, depending on the number of mortgages and underlying investors/insurers which can all affect approval and length of the process. Patience is a virtue. Best of luck on you offer!

LISTING PRICE
Understand that the LISTING PRICE has one primary objective, to attract attention: It is not intended to be set in stone, and in many cases it is not even a good guideline toward the SELLING PRICE.
Some Sellers believe that by setting the LISTING PRICE high, they can always come down, and people will make an offer anyway: WRONG! Buyers will just bypass the property and look at houses that are within their price range. And six months from now, the Seller will slowly start lowering the PRICE, (this is called â€œchasing the curveâ€) and Buyers will be asking the question; â€œWhatâ€™s wrong with that house?â€ and â€œWhy has it been on the Market so long?â€
Other Sellers set the LISTING PRICE low, to attract multiple offers. (The correct strategy.) We are asked; â€œArenâ€™t you obligated to sell at this price if someone offers it?â€ The answer is probably not; for that to happen, you would first have to have only one offer, and secondly, the offer would have be exactly the same, down to the smallest detail, (please discuss this with your Realtor).
Another thought; Buyer will search for potential properties by groups; for example, $400,000 to $450,000, and $250,000 to $300,000. If your house is priced at $460,000 or $310,000, the Buyers will never see it. (something else to discuss with your Agent.)
Different Banks have different philosophies about pricing their properties: You cannot draw any conclusions without a good analysis.
Have your Realtor do a CMA, (Comparative Market Analysis) to help you determine your Offering Price. It is the surest way to determine the Market Value of the property.

Sadly there is no real hard and fast time frames for any of the short sale lenders. There are so many variables that have to be taken into account - like mortgage insurance and who the actual investor is, plus how current and complete is the seller's file on the property. Remember that on a short sale the seller has to qualify for the short sale as well. Good luck with your purchase!

The price offered on a short sale may entice the owner to accept quickly it will how ever have little to do with the speed in which it will be accepted or rejected by a lender. If there is a short sale negotiator involved that may smooth things out as well as the amount of experience and tenacity of the listing agent can influence the time taken.